


do not bury your feelings under a bed of flowers. wear them proudly.

by Yep_Im_Here_Too



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Friends to Lovers, Introspection, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Requited Love, Sad with a Happy Ending, Swearing, Unrequited Love, actually it might straight up, but dont worry it turns into!!!, lapslock, so i guess that means, some light uhh, this was an experiment for me so be nice :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26118040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yep_Im_Here_Too/pseuds/Yep_Im_Here_Too
Summary: (i honestly spent 10 minutes trying to title this and just gave up dont judge me LOL)it begins with an innocent question.decisions are made, certain thoughts are deflected. and between two men, a dance of avoidance and denial.it ends with a cornflower.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 440





	do not bury your feelings under a bed of flowers. wear them proudly.

**Author's Note:**

> im sorry if its a little bit confusing, this was my first time writing in such a style. and im not good at being poetic so dont mind my title and summary 😅
> 
> this takes place over the course of almost a month.
> 
> please enjoy 😊

george already didn’t really like listening to his own voice while editing videos, but this one was far worse than usual. having to cut himself saying “i love you” to dream in this stupid inventory video made him blush and want to bury his face in hands. even just reviewing the parts before, when dream gave him the rosebush, made his face warm.

it wasn’t like dream hadn’t done this before. for whatever reason, he just seemed to like giving george flowers at the most random moments. sometimes he would play it up during videos, asking george to say the forbidden words and all that. but other times it would just be in the privacy of a random world, or a server. 

it had become almost a daily thing, just something he knew dream to do.

george wasn’t really sure what to think of this. it was sweet in its own weird way, he supposed, but he was never really sure if it was entirely a running joke or not. the thought didn’t quite make it to his surface-level conscience, but george wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out.

—

“here, george. i got you a poppy because i love you.” 

as george’s character turned from a chest, a red poppy was dropped at his feet and subsequently scooped into his inventory. he could hear the smile in dreams voice as he said it.

“wow, thanks,” he deadpanned.

and they moved on.

—

the next time was during a stream. george hadn’t noticed that dream had gone a bit quiet, too busy catching up the donations he was missing. he idly watched as dreams character bounded up to him in the survival base, tossing a lily of the valley at his feet before hopping away again to do who knows what. 

as the flower was picked up into george's hotbar, he moused over it and found it had been named the letters “ily.” 

he huffed a laugh. “you’re so stupid, dream.” he said fondly. 

—

the two boys had just wrapped up a video challenge, the bedrock scattered across the landscape proof of it. the plugin was turned off as well as the recording software.

dream was chattering about some random part of the video, but was nowhere in sight on the map. george hummed as he listened, switching his game mode to creative and building random structures of stone bricks to pass the time. 

as he stood proudly on top of a stone phallus, he noticed dream flying towards him. the green blob hovered over his head for a bit, silent, and then dropped a peony on his head. 

he flew away again, changing the topic to when the next video was to be recorded. 

george said nothing, but quirked a smile at his friend’s antics. 

—

the next time it happened, george was just minding his own business on the smp (of course, in a call with dream). dream had been quiet for a while, having cited earlier that it was late and he was tired, but just wanted to finish fixing up some things around the base before he went to bed. 

george was checking his phone, his characters head pointed towards the entrance of the house, until a flicker of movement caught his eye. he looked up as dream came to a stop in front of him.

a purple allium was dropped at his feet, and once again dream retreated to wherever he had come from. george moused over it, checking in case this was another named flower, but there was nothing. he paused for a moment, debating over whether or not he should ask about something so trivial. 

“hey dream?”

“yeah?”

“um.. i don’t have a problem with it or anything but like.. why do you always give me flowers?”

  
a beat of silence.

  
two.

  
dream cleared his throat. 

“uh. i don’t know. i just like doing it.”

george hummed. “you don’t really give them to anyone else?” it was a statement, but george asked it like a question, unsure of where the conversation was heading. it seemed dream didn’t know either. 

“uhm, yeah.. i guess not. i-i don’t know. i just- i can stop if you want.” the american stopped himself from rambling. now was not the time.

“no, its ok.. um.. i don’t really care.”

george felt bad for bringing it up now. the atmosphere was awkward. 

it had been an unspoken thing for so long, he felt like he had overstepped some kind of invisible line he had no knowledge of until it was too late. the silence from dream was laid thick over the call.

  
eventually it was broken.

“um, im gonna go to bed. goodnight george.” 

george barely had time to say it back before dream was logged out.

—

dream sighed as he removed his headphones, leaning back in his chair and slapping his hands over his face. 

that was so awkward.

even he himself wasn’t sure when exactly he had started with the flowers. for a while now, it was just a thing he did whenever he thought of it. at first, it was mainly to get a reaction out of george, whether it was a pretty blush or just a slight laugh. but he kept doing it. a peony here, a rosebush there. 

  
did he go too far?

  
george had said he was fine with it, but he didn’t exactly sound very comfortable either. 

dream sighed again, this time in resignation. it was time to stop with the stupid flowers. 

he was probably being way too obvious about his dumb crush on george, and giving him minecraft flowers every other second definitely wasn’t helping. 

and as much as he wanted to withdraw, just escape from george and hide in his room for a few days in hopes of making the ache in his heart lessen, dream knew he couldn’t do that. acting depressed wouldn’t get him anywhere, and would only bring suspicion.

too lazy to change, dream got up from his desk to flop onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. 

why does love have to be so difficult all the time.

—

the next day after the awkward conversation, george is thankful to see that dream doesn’t seem to be acting any different. he was worried for a bit that he might have messed up somehow, but he should’ve known that dream was tougher than that.

the green man himself interrupts george’s thoughts, and he joins back to the conversation between dream and sapnap. 

—

its a few days later when george is running through a flower biome during an attempt at a speed run when the thought idly flits by. dream hasn’t given him any flowers recently.

george doesn’t think much of it, because it wasn’t like there was a schedule for it or anything. the gauche early morning/late night encounter was nearly forgotten by now, and before george has the chance to linger at all on thoughts of flowers and blond hair, he encounters a village and gets to work.

—

a week passes. george is walking to a cafe down the street for some late brunch when he spots a bed of brightly colored flowers across the street in someone’s windowsill, and is surprised to find that he thinks of dream.

once again, george realizes with more awareness this time that dream hasn’t given him a single flower this week. 

it was such an insignificant thing, but.. george feels his eyebrows furrow slightly. he wonders why the man stopped.

  
but why was george bothered by something like this?

  
the british man filed that question away for later, stepping through a door into the rich smell of coffee and pastries. 

—

two weeks pass. unwillingly, george finds himself stuck on the lack of roses and cornflowers from dream. 

he thinks of it whenever an iron golem drops a poppy during a (usually slow) speed run.

or when the odd flower gets washed into his inventory from placing water. 

or when he passes by a cluster of bright blue orchids in a swamp.

it almost feels strange to still be hanging out with dream so much and yet not a single sunflower or daisy gets tossed his way. 

it bothers george that he’s so hyper-aware of it. dream isn’t acting different aside from it, so why does george feel like he’s changed?

—

3 weeks. george is scrolling through the comments of dream’s latest challenge video when a particular one catches his eye. 

‘i miss all the flirtinggg did they divorce or something? LOL’

and george gawks. the comment itself wasn’t anything special. but he hadn’t even realized it.

he pushed away from his desk slightly and stared at his hands in his lap. he truly hadn’t noticed until now, or maybe just didn’t give any thought to it. but dream’s fake flirting, fanservice, and dumb pickup lines had all tapered off. george tried to think of the last time dream said ‘i love you,’ jokingly or not, and was shocked to find he couldn’t really remember. 

and now that he thought about it, dream did seem a little quiet lately…

alright, that’s it. no more pushing off thinking about stuff, george thought. he got up from his desk, discarding his socks on the way to the bed and laid down. he clasped his hands together on his stomach, and stared at the ceiling. it was time for a real good thinking session.

the details were a bit fuzzy by now, but this must have started when george had stupidly asked about the flowers. but he remembered having said he was fine with it, so why would dream stop anyway?

perhaps he thought george was lying.

and if he thought george was lying about the flowers, maybe he thought he was lying about the joke flirting, as well. 

but it didn’t make sense. dream knew that george was got flustered and a little annoyed with it, but he was never mad. not to mention dream was a very stubborn person, he wouldn’t stop just because of a hint.

so why?

the more george thought about it, the more he realized there’s more to the story than he knows about. 

he reviewed his most recent interactions with dream, trying to pick out anything notable.

he seemed normal enough during recordings and streams. 

he had been claiming he was tired more often lately when they were by themselves though. hanging up a little earlier than he normally would, or letting the “comfortable silences” stretch on a little longer. 

it wasn’t enough of a difference for george to notice while it was happening. but now what? dream could just be sleeping badly.

but that wouldn’t explain anything else.

george’s head was starting to hurt.

maybe… maybe dream has depression? george immediately shook that one off. he felt guilty assuming his friend was mentally ill just because he was sour about minecraft flowers. 

but maybe he should still ask if everything is ok. 

george chewed on his lip. last time he asked questions was when things started going downhill. but he was normal for worrying about his friend, right?

_you’re just sad he isn’t flirting with you anymore,_ a little nagging voice said. _you always pretended you didn’t like it but you did._

george didn’t know what to think of that.

did he really like when dream flirted with him?

  
it seems we have another issue here.

—

dream sighed heavily as the “you died” screen lit up his face red. seems like today is just not his day. he thought he was going to practice speedrunning for a few hours, but he wasn’t on his game.

“wow, looks like you actually kinda suck dream,” a lilted voice told him.

“oh, be quiet george.” dream quietly laughed. 

a comfy silence pervaded the call as dream decided to try his luck on a few more seeds. he threw himself in lava and just sat on the respawn screen eventually, cursing his bad luck.

“dream?” a timid voice asked. the tone made the man sit up straight, wondering what his friend was about to say.

“what is it?”

a breath in preparation. 

“um.. are you feeling ok? recently? i kind of thought you seemed down.. um, sorry if that’s a weird question..”

shit. _shit._ george was on to him. dream thought he was doing a good job acting normal besides the lack of flowers and flirting. did he seem sad? was he zoning out more than he thought? should he have tried to act more lively? what gave him away?

through his panic, dream realized it had been several moments too long and he hadn’t given george an answer. shit. 

“uhh…” he eloquently began. he tried to put together some kind of reasonable excuse through the hurricane of questions and curses in his head.

“i’ve just been sleeping kind of badly lately. i didn’t know it was that obvious.”

the static stillness stretched taut between them from across continents.

“no offense, dream, but i don’t really buy that.”

a sigh.

a standoff occurs, nobody willing to make the first move.

the silence weighs heavy on dream. like the guilt of telling a lie to his best friend.

“dream.”

he’s no longer panicking. ‘no thoughts, head empty’ if you will.

“you know you can tell me anything dream? i’m just worried. if somethings wrong, i wanna know.”

“i know.”

george makes a soft noise. “dream, please. don’t shut me out..”

dream’s resigned stare at his keyboard lifts at that. he didn’t want george to feel upset because of him.

but what could he say?

george was still waiting for an answer.

“…will you get mad if i say i don’t wanna talk about it?” dream says in a small voice.

“so there _is_ something.” george almost feels lost at sea in this conversation. he wishes he could see dream’s face. “are you sure? i just want to help…”

“i’m sure.” definitive words, but the shaky voice behind them makes george want to hug him. 

he wishes he was there with dream.

“listen, dream.. i won’t push you but, if whatever’s bothering you gets to be too much, please come talk to me ok?”

“alright.”

george’s chest aches.

“i’ll talk to you tomorrow, george.”

“yeah..”

when the call ends, dream goes to sleep even though its only 5pm.

—

the next day, george wakes with an uneasy feeling deep in his stomach. he found himself once again worrying if he had messed up things between him and dream. 

its 10am, which means its 5am for dream. even though its an absurd time, both of their sleeping schedules are fucked and george can’t help but feel disappointed when he sees dream is offline anyway. 

he considers talking to sapnap when he wakes up.

george wasn’t too worried at the time when he asked if dream was ok, but the strange conversation made him think that dream might really be suffering.

sapnap might know something. 

but would that be betraying dream’s trust in a way? he said he didn’t want to talk about it.

the combined curiosity and concern was killing george. what exactly was ‘it’?

he spent the rest of the morning editing a video he had been putting off, but dream never left the back of his mind.

—

later, sapnap comes online and george decides to just go for it and ask. he messages him to call, staring at the still-gray dot on dream’s profile.

“whats up, george?” sapnap asks him, his voice slightly gravelly from having woken up recently.

“hey. um, weird question but do you think dream has been acting different lately?”

“what? i mean, i don’t think so.. why do you ask?”

“i just- i thought he seemed kind of…” george struggled for the right word. “…subdued. lately.”

“well he has been complaining that he’s tired right? maybe he just needs to start having a real sleeping schedule.” 

so dream told him the same thing.

some shuffling could be heard from sapnap, until he started to speak again with an audible teasing smile. “whats the matter georgie? are you worried?”

“well.. maybe…” 

the smile slid off sapnap’s face when george had no playful retort. there must be something going on and i must not have noticed, he thought.

“sorry.. he hasn’t said anything to me. i guess you’re right saying he seems more quiet lately, but i didn’t really notice anything was wrong. have- have you asked him if he’s ok?” 

george made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. should he tell him? 

he decided to try and deflect the question.

“uh.. i was just wondering if he said anything to you. i guess that’s all for now.”

luckily it worked.

“alright, call me if anything happens man, i gotta get ready for work.”

“yeah. bye sapnap.” 

—

its 5pm for george when dream’s icon _finally_ turns green. 

george’s mouse is hovering over the call button, but he stops himself. he should let dream be the one to call first, and hopefully everything would be normal.

or at least, as normal as things have been lately. 

george suddenly realizes that he wants to hear dream say he loves him.

selfish.

—

the sun has set by the time dream calls george and sapnap to play bedwars. george is thankful for the extra person to diffuse any tension or awkwardness that might have lingered.

sapnap didn’t give away any hints of their earlier conversation. 

dream seemed fine enough, at least not worse than yesterday. 

george hoped he was acting normal, because he felt queasy knowing there was something wrong with dream.

they lost the game. 

—

the next day, george is pleasantly surprised to wake up to a few texts from dream about wanting to record sometime later. he feels optimistic. 

he busies himself grocery shopping for the day, and tries to ignore that bed of flowers as he walks by them again on the way home.

he wonders what dream is doing.

—

the recording goes well. dream was a little low energy, but that’s been nothing new for a few weeks now. its not like he can help it.

after everything is said and done, they decide to go on the smp for a bit since its been a while. nobody else is online when they join. 

dream is clearing the trash out of his inventory into the lake when a cornflower catches his eye.

just one couldn’t hurt right?

(famous last words, dream thought.)

he hunts for george for a while until he finds him out in the forest near spawn.

he stares at his character for a minute, long enough for george to mutter a quiet “what?” when he doesn’t say anything.

he drops the flower at the british man’s feet and runs. 

dream holds his breath, waiting for some kind of reaction from george.

but what he doesn’t expect is a quiet, wet sounding sniff. 

“dream?” a shaky voice calls out. was george _crying_?

dream doesn’t trust himself with words right now, so he hums in lieu of an answer.

“i… i love you, dream. i hope you know that.”

and dream feels his heart melt on the spot. he almost never gets to hear those words, which makes it all the more special. he feels himself tear up as well, smiling softly. but the stone of guilt in the pit of his stomach remains. 

_george doesn’t want your kind of love. you would just ruin the best friendship you’ve ever had. you make him worry, force him to say things he doesn’t want to. its a miracle you’ve managed to keep him this long._

dream feels his face crumple from the onslaught of negative thoughts, and buries himself in his arms on his desk. he still hears george sniffing, probably recovering from crying. it practically burns dream to know that he can’t wipe away the boy’s tears, can’t cradle him close, can’t kiss his forehead and promise him he’s ok.

dream doesn’t realize he’s sobbing into the sleeves of his sweatshirt until he hears george through his headphones, the concern clear in his voice.

“wh- are you alright? dream? what’s wrong??”

hes tired. dream is _so tired_. he can’t keep pretending everything is ok. its exhausting loving someone and having to pretend you don’t.

so he lets it all go.

“i love you george. god, i love you so much. i- i just can’t do it anymore. i love you. _i love you_.” 

he chokes on a sob, tastes salt on his tongue. he can feel how hot his face is, and his shoulders are shaking as he curls over his desk. but now that he’s started, he can’t stop.

“i was- trying so hard not to act different since i realized, i just didn’t wanna ruin what we had. and i didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. so i tried to st.. i tried to stop with all the flirting and somehow it just made it harder and i can’t fucking do it.” 

he panted for breath. george didn’t say anything.

“i’m sorry… i made you worry over nothing and now you have to deal with this. deal with me. i’m sorry george…” he trailed off, his breath repeatedly hitching as he tried to calm down. 

the silence from the other end of the call pressed in on him.

dream grit his teeth and tried to count from 1 to 10. 

his sleeves were wet and gross. so was his face. 

he wasn’t sure if he could handle this.

a nearly inaudible shaky intake of breath.

“dream..”

george’s voice was almost soft and sweet enough to make dream start crying all over again. he didn’t deserve this angel on earth.

“dream, i think i.. um.. i didn’t realize it until these past few days. but.” a sharp inhale. “i love you too dream. i really do. seeing you hurting makes me hurt too, and not just as a friend in sympathy. i want to be _with_ you. i really care about you.”

dream imagined george clasping his hands and wiping away the tears on his face. he whimpered, equal parts longing and relief. 

“i love you so much george.”

“i love you too, dream.” 

a hysterical giggle, and then a pained sigh.

“i wish i was there with you…”

“me too…” 

a beat of silence.

two.

“i guess its time to fly me out to florida.”

**Author's Note:**

> HOOO BOY this one took some effort. it took me basically a full day to write this (and i mean full. started at 3am ended at 11pm) on and off but i finally got it done. i feel like it mightve been a bit too long but whatever.
> 
> i know this fic is pretty outdated since dream hasnt really done the flower thing in months but... i do not c a re
> 
> ive read this style of work before but i wanted to try actually writing it, i think it turned out alright!
> 
> even if this gets positive feedback, i wont be adding to it. but if youre reading this, i hope you liked it 🥰💖


End file.
